In sessions that focused on the challenges or developing products for Orange and the importance of the Orange brand attendees were encouraged to consider the wider implications of adding the unique 'Orange' flavour to their service application or service. Branding tends to generate mixed feelings amongst developers; some see it as a pseudo-science and prefer to concentrate on the technical. However at the start of a series of sessions on the Orange brand the importance of branding was simply but effectively pointed at by pointing to the real word. Everyone recognises key world brands (e.g. Nike, Coca Cola) and many of us can recognize a brand even from a partial logo. This power is about awareness, but is also about the experience people associate with it. This is why brand has value - many items can double or even triple in value just by adding a recognised brand label.
One of a number of quotes Orange used as illustrations of the importance and meaning of brand.
In this case its from Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
In a later sessions Louise Gerolemou listed the 5 key attributes of the Orange brand, friendly, honest, straight forward, dynamic, refreshing, which is the basis of the message and experience that Orange brand seeks to create. Andrew McGrath, the director of the design and usability team at Orange said there were three key areas for partners to consider: brand conformance (infused with the Orange brand values the underlying values), design conformance (customised icons, colours terminology, modification of screen flows and journey - the technical implementation of the brand) and usability (useable, learnable and enjoyable - the experience of the brand).
At first glance it is, perhaps, easy for partners to be sceptical about putting Orange brand values into a product. However what this really does is offers an alternative viewpoint to the assessment of values that should be in all customer facing interactions. Mobile developers I have spoken to acknowledge that the primary challenges they face in creating mobile services or products today are generally not technical, but commercial and marketing related; about how to connect with and sell to the average user.
Most of the attributes of the Orange brand are common sense that all customer facing products should seek to implement; much of this comes down to the user experience. All developers should be looking to produce products that are easy to use (friendly and straight forward), make charges / costs clear (honest), and offer something uniquely mobile (dynamic and refreshing). While the perception of the Orange brand amongst the top 1% of users may be mixed amongst the majority of users it is generally positive; moreover it is very well known. Developers can take advantage of this and piggy back their products on the back of the existing brand; the value of this should not be under estimated.
An example of three Orange branded applications from third party developers.
Creating a compelling user experience is the key regardless of the product. By framing the assessment and planning of user experience in terms of the brand a fresh perspective can be achieved. The other half of the equation is that partners are able to draw on the value of the Orange brand. For example it can create a sense of familiarity among users and thereby trust and can lower entry barriers. If users are familiar with a certain way of doing things developers can take advantage of this to widen the pool of potential users.
In the Orange Devices session partners were offered an insight into how Orange puts its device portfolio together, offering a practical example of the brand issues discussed above. Orange aims to bring knowledge of its customers together with manufacturer expertise to create devices that have a compelling end to end user experience. Orange aims to have both a wide range of devices, but amongst these devices some are signature devices which are more highly customised and have additional services that are unique to Orange. It is not surprising that customers using the signature devices are Orange's most valuable in terms of revenue since they represent the fullest implementation of the Orange brand values.